'I thought I'd scored...'

Gylfi Sigurdsson is hoping his luck changes soon after being denied a late winner against Stoke on Saturday.

Having chipped away at the notoriously tight Stoke defence for 90 minutes, it looked like Gylfi was going to break the deadlock in the first minute of injury tme.

Sandro crossed from the right and Gylfi connected with a glancing header that looked destined for the bottom corner until Amir Begovic’s right hand diverted it away superbly.

It ended goalless and Gylfi was left to reflect on another ‘what might have been’ moment after hitting the crossbar when we were 1-0 up with five minutes remaining at Everton. The ball stayed out that day as well and we went on to lose 2-1 in injury time.

“I managed to attack Sandro’s cross and I thought I’d scored but Begovic pulled out a great save,” said Gylfi. “That’s the way it is at the moment. I hit the crossbar at Everton as well. I’m getting closer. Hopefully my luck will change soon."

Gylfi echoed Andre Villas-Boas’ praise of Stoke’s defensive quality.

“We dominated, especially in the second half, but they are very good defensively and it’s hard to break them down,” he added.

“They play with a lot of men behind the ball and their forwards are good at holding the ball up. When they do that, they are then looking to get wide and get crosses in.

“Once you get the first goal, the game opens up, but they kept the clean sheet, so credit to them.”